Speech by President of the Government at award ceremony for CEPYME Prizes

Madrid

Mr President of CEPYME, Mr President of CEOE, Mr President of CEAT, Mr President of the Board of Trustees of the National Reina Sofía Museum Centre, award-winners, ladies and gentlemen,

A country's pulse can be affected by many factors, but one of the most important is the drive of its entrepreneurial spirit. The will to set up companies shows us the best face of a dynamic society, that is non-conformist, focused on stimulating talent and thus open to a future of prosperity.

A business spirit makes a country because it is society as a whole that catches its energy and benefits from the fruit of its labour. A society without business leaders is a lethargic society, where the value of liberty leaves too many orphans. Liberty and an entrepreneurial spirit, small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs and independent contractors, form a brotherhood. Governments must have this clear and this reality must inspire our policies at all times.

Fortunately, and you are the best proof of this, no-one can say that this does not exist in the Spain that you represent, an innovative Spain, because you personify the very best of all of us, you are our best face.

The values that you symbolise, those of effort, a desire to succeed, faith in a project, of not dropping our guard, of not succumbing to difficulties however big they may be, of not giving up ever, are the same values we aspire to when it comes to changing the image of Spain that we see reflected in the mirror.

You not only represent the optimism of new starts but also the constancy of hard work and goals achieved. In other words, of work well done.

That is why I want to thank you: thank you for having been there during the whole of this crisis, thank you for trusting in this country's possibilities and thank you because this recovery we are enjoying cannot be understood without the determination and drive of entrepreneurs such as yourselves. So, thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen,

All of these reasons make this third edition of the CEPYME Prizes, which I feel very honoured to attend, an extraordinary event. And it is thus so for several reasons. Firstly, because of the standing and reputation of the organiser - CEPYME - the great voice of our SMEs and our independent contractors, whose President, Antonio Garamendi, I am grateful to for his invitation here.

Also because if we are talking about rewarding talent and innovation, it is difficult to find a more appropriate place than this extraordinary archive of modernity, the Reina Sofia Museum, whose President of the Board of Trustees, Guillermo de la Dehesa, I wish to thank for hosting this event and welcoming us here today.

But today, the most extraordinary thing of all is attending here to acknowledge the outstanding value of those who now form part of the most noteworthy business talent in our country; an ensemble which, as we have heard, covers all the vital areas of our entrepreneurial physiognomy. This third edition of the CEPYME Prizes pays tribute to the company "NextLimit" for its decisive commitment to technological innovation, to "Libelum comunicaciones distribuidas" for conquering major markets in its international development, and "Eccofreight Transport" for its singularity and the scope of its entrepreneurial project.

And, moreover, these awards have had the good judgement to reward certain companies that are singularly linked to social causes that affect us all. I refer to the role of "Habtissimo" in creating jobs, of "Dans Le Noir" in its commitment to the inclusion at work of persons with disabilities, and of "JP Media Consultoría y análisis" for its equally strong commitment to equality.

Together with all these, I wanted to make a particularly warm mention of Laura Salgado Sereno, acknowledged in the category of independent contractor of the year, and of "Idai Nature" as the outstanding SME of this year, 2016, according to a well qualified, constructive and demanding jury. And, of course, Enrique Cornejo, one of the most deservedly awarded prize-winners, and I have seen quite a few in my lifetime.

To all of them, I once again offer this government's and Spanish society's congratulations and gratitude.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Spain is a great project and, as with all great projects, it has an entrepreneurial vocation that nurtures its future day-after-day. We cannot complain: we have the best assets; we have a well trained society that gives no ground to anyone in terms of competitiveness; we have the best infrastructures to mobilise our talent; we have a culture which only serves to guarantee our social capital; we enjoy levels of legal certainty of the most advanced countries; we have companies whose competitiveness extends to all five continents and we have shown, as is happening now, that we can be at the forefront of economic growth and job creation in Europe, simply by doing things well.

We even have the formula that has taken us from the worst crisis in our recent history to a sound recovery in just a few short years. Seriousness, stability, rigour, moderation and, of course, a great deal of effort and hard work by many millions of people have been the constant factors that have marked the latest recent stage in Spain's history.

Allow me to offer you an appropriate parallel between the entrepreneurial spirit that lies in all of you and the reformist spirit that has been key in our best moments as a nation, since both are examples of an ongoing will to improve and awareness that daily efforts and steps forward end up leading to lasting rewards.

A reformist spirit implies not falling into the temptation of going back or undoing the progress made on the grounds of ideological principles or other opportunist interests. What we have in our hands is as serious as the very future and prosperity of our country. To act in the opposite direction to our own interests would open up serious cracks of vulnerability faced with external uncertainties or future crises. No-one would be able to understand, and the government could not accept, severing the very roots of our success.

Similarly, the reformist vocation, as I see it, implies a determination to continue boosting our upward trend, with drive, dialogue and tenacity, which may lead us, unless we fall by the wayside, to achieve great national goals that were simply unimaginable a short time ago.

The first of them, due to its proximity, is to ensure our international credibility, which explains a good part of our successes, as well as the confidence that these will continue. Ensuring international confidence and credibility means meeting our public deficit commitments without this leading to rises in the main taxes and, as everyone appreciates, since this is common sense and responds to the most basic economic calculation, the trend in spending must have a direct relationship with the trend in income.

In the near future, the Government of Spain will have to present some important economic decisions before the Lower House of Parliament which, in my opinion, will set the course for this legislature and which I believe would be very positive for the people of Spain as a whole if they were endorsed by a majority of MPs in the Lower House: the ceiling on State spending, the budget stability targets and our document, to be submitted to Brussels, explaining how we are going to continue meeting our commitments to our partners.

More goals: we are on the verge of recovering the levels of wealth seen before the crisis, a milestone which, with the forecasts in our hands, we will almost certainly achieve next year. The Gross Domestic Product of our country will be recovered in just a short time to stand at the levels last seen before the crisis, because during this crisis - five years in recession - the worst Spain has gone through, at least that I have seen, we lost almost 10% of our Gross Domestic Product. Well, I believe we will recover that position next year.

Close on 3.4 million jobs were also shed during the crisis, but in recent years, as has been recalled here today, we have recovered some of them. In fact, 2014 to 2016 were good years for job creation in our country, particularly 2015, which saw the largest fall in unemployment on record. But we still have an awfully long way to go. That is why our primary goal, over and above any other important consideration, is job creation. And that is much more than a political and economic goal, which it also is; it is, above all, a human and social goal.

It is not wishful thinking to claim, rather quite the opposite, that by the end of this decade job levels in Spain - if we are capable of doing things right, of generating security and certainty, if we all act with the responsibility we supposedly have and if, of course, and I am sure that this will be the case, our business leaders keep on working, keep on trying to put their ideas into practice and continue creating jobs; if we are capable of doing this - then I believe we will have figures that are comparable with our peer countries.

In short, we will face some important challenges in the future, which are knocking on our door. The pension system - a key issue in the medium and long term - regional financing and the education pact are tasks that we must face in the coming years through dialogue, acts and agreements. Sometimes what appear to be difficulties on paper end up being the best source of opportunities in reality. And that must be the spirit of this legislature that has just commenced.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you will see and as you know, things have changed in recent years, although I never tire of saying that they must change, and much more so, in the next few years.

You are perfectly aware of what the situation was for SMEs and independent contractors back in 2011: late paying public authorities, lack of credit… Today, fortunately, things have changed, the number of self-employed has risen and the number of companies as well. 41 billion euros have been injected into liquidity to pay the outstanding invoices of regional governments and local authorities.

We have tried to undertake, I don't know quite how successfully, a comprehensive policy to support SMEs, independent contractors and entrepreneurs, facilitating the creation of new companies, their growth, access to financing, their internationalisation and, as and when necessary, the possibility of business owners being given a second chance.

I won't bore you by listing a whole raft of measures, but I would like to mention, without going into detail, a few things:

• The Market Unity Act, on which, Mr President of CEPYME, there is still a lot to do to fully apply it.
• The first Entrepreneur Act.
• We have included an option on entrepreneurism in the education system.
• We gave a major boost to the activity of the Official Credit Institute.
• Mechanisms on non-banking financing have been designed.
• The Supplier Payment Plan was implemented.
• The Second Chance Act.
• We made an effort, within the possibilities allowed us, which, rest assured, were all too few, on the matter of taxation and also through the flat-rate National Insurance contribution.
• We also dropped withholdings for professionals from 21% to 15%.
• We have implemented a deduction for the re-investment of profits in assets related to the activity of the self-employed and the levelling reserve so that SMEs can offset future tax bases within a period of five years.

Summed up and very briefly, that is what we have done. What I would like to say to you now is that, if looking after companies and the self-employed has been a key priority in a tremendously difficult term of office, rest assured that it will remain so in the future.

There are certain things that are very important and I have referred to some of these earlier: maintaining budget stability, because that generates confidence and credibility and this provides a good framework for economic growth and job creation; secondly, and this is very important, as I have also heard mentioned here this morning, continuing with structural reforms, and we will do this with 137 seats and the pacts that are necessary to make. When reforms are made, good results undoubtedly follow. But it is also very important that the reforms approved in the last legislature are not overturned by a majority in one of our parliamentary chambers. That would be very negative for the interests of the Spanish people as a whole and I hope that everyone acts with due responsibility.

And I will now conclude my speech, but I don't want to finish without sharing a reflection with you.

No-one is blind to the fact that we live in a world that offers us increasing opportunities but, at the same time, is more competitive. The role Spain will play on this stage depends, to a large degree, on an objective that I believe we all share, which is confirming Spanish society as an entrepreneurial society.

If we manage to be a country open to the changes of the new economy and if we establish Spain as a business platform, we will not only be in a position to reap the rewards of the opportunities offered to us and establish our country as an international benchmark. We will also have a country of which we can feel increasingly proud because it has fulfilled its potential, because it has reached increasingly lofty levels of prosperity and because it is capable of improving the lives of its own citizens.

I believe that we are a great country of business leaders, or entrepreneurs and of workers, and this is the time in our history in which we must exploit the talent and resourcefulness of our country. This is not a desideratum, it is a goal based on the reality of the Spanish people, and we have seen this in the videos we watched earlier. I have learned some things that surprised me, as I imagine they did many of you as well, and pleasantly so. All we need is a little more self-belief. We sometimes have a tendency to criticise what is going badly; there are those who only talk about what is wrong.

Spain clearly has many problems, but Spain is a great country, Spain is a great nation, one of the most important economic powers in Europe and in the world, with a very healthy level of per capita income; with infrastructures like no other; with a welfare system - a public pension system, universal and free healthcare system, and an education system - with companies that have invested almost half the Spanish GDP overseas, the leading country in the world in terms of transplants, the tenth-ranked country in scientific production… Let's talk about what we do well, and believe in this because, aside from that we can say that we have a great base to continuing building on in the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations to all of you and thank you very much for your attention.